The present invention relates to the field of display advertising, and in particular, to the display and printing of graphic information in a distributed data processing system. In a conventional distributed data processing system, a host system is connected to and controls several remote systems. The remote systems are usually slaved to the host system, but are also capable of operating independently of the host system. The remote systems accept data and instructions from the host system, process the data and instructions, and notify the host system of the results of the processing. It is not uncommon for the host system to send different data and instructions to each of the remote systems under its control.
In some distributed processing systems, the host system may send different graphics data and instructions to each of several remote systems for display. For example, first graphics data and instructions may be sent to a first remote system, second graphics data and instructions may be sent to a second remote system, and so on. In such a system, the type of graphics data to be displayed changes often. For example, if the remote systems are displaying graphics or printing coupons relating to retail advertisements, the advertisements or coupons may run at different times on different days of the week. Similarly, advertisements or coupons may be cancelled or new advertisements or coupons added or the manner in which the advertisements are displayed, such as dissolve, fadeout, etc., may change. A need exists for an extremely flexible retail graphics display system that would take into account the almost constant alteration of the displayed information, while still keeping system overhead to a minimum.